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Business Talks
This article is a part of my bold but authentic articles series found in the Business & More newsletter on the Linkedin Gobig4business&investments page
Par.t One
Why did we choose you as a Leader of our organization?
Leaders Develop leaders, and followers create more followers.
This sentence always resin in my mind when someone asks the HR team or top management on what basis you choose your leaders? Why don't we have internal proions instead of looking for leaders externally?
2 answers for each question. Sometimes, either .Sometimes i it s correct but in most cases, both apply.
Q1-A1: skills set, education, experience (qualification in general).
Q1-A2: saying no, I disagree with you on the solution, but I am willing to meet you halfway.
Q1-answers explanation:
1st answer is self-explanatory however 2nd answer is a little bit more complicated, being a leader means that most of the time you must learn to say no, not only to your field force but also to your manager and his manager, you may shockingly ask me why is that and how I can even get a promotion if my attitude is negative toward my superior, actually you understood the whole thing wrong if your manager know what you have to do to make the ship reach to the shore safely so there's no need for your presence in today's technology of performance tracking, reporting, AI analysis, outcomes forecasting based on previous performance '& history can gives the guide to any leader on how to forecast, plan and even manage his team remotely without the need of physical presence, that's means that a cluster head or even vice president of a multinational company can make decisions related to targets, promotions, layoff, ...etc
the key role of leaders nowadays is able to guide their team to find innovative solutions to existing and future problems, create a safe space where they can speak their mind without any fear of retaliation of warning letters with badd attitudes and lack of respect alibi, like we are in the 15th century yet.
empower them to make spot decisions, customers trust people who make decisions and that's why sales managers, sell easier to a customer vs sales specialists, where both use the same message and selling steps and journey.
fake managers start to say that this is easy for me because of my high skills acquired through many years of experience, of course, that plays a crucial part, but your job is to make your specialists learn them in the first place, not hide them to make yourself seems different!
Leaders most are able to understand that they are in the same boat as their sales specialist or medical representatives, when you teach them something incomplete may accidentally make a hole into their side of the ship and because you know it all want to save it and be the hero won't teach someone else to help you with it and all of you will drown eventually.
That's why most multinational companies have frequent restructures, not because they are bad entities but because leaders there are afraid for their position so much to the point they don't give their all to their sales specialists even worse, sometimes when someone smarter than them join their team, they made their best to make him look inexperience, naive '& need frequent help and assistance from the know it all manager.
Leaders must train their specialists to be leaders, communicate clearly, be on their side when things go down, and take the fall for them, not the other way around (leaders in MNCs sacrifice salespersons when financials begin to drop, as they think it's easy to blame others for their poor planning and team spirits letting so to management point fingers on the specialist and not them leading to firing talents and keep the main cause of the problem.
Story Time:
I can proudly say something with top transparency, the only direct manager who I reported to when I was a medical rep. And was always taking the fall when numbers doesn't come as expected, someone I am still proud that I reported to him to that day, called Hisham when I was in Sandoz, at that time I felt like he is one of the worst managers ever, of course, will think that I was still naive my 1st year in the Pharmaceutical sales industry when I started reporting to him.
After changing many managers, pursuing better opportunities & had the experience to finally lead people, I discovered that he was the best of all who came after him in spite of he was the lowest position compared to all of the others moreover they were in a more sophisticated, benefits loaded & established companies with products pipeline that made anyone says why the heck someone chooses this leader over that or at least choosing a leader with similar characteristics?
the answer is straightforward:
In the beginning, they were like Hisham, but they simply forgot how they were before getting the job, forgot the hunger, and the thirst to differentiate themselves from the crowd, and when this is lost, nothing else matters.
to be continued....
stay tuned up for part two
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